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All the pennies, as well as nickels, dimes and quarters, that gamblers have left behind at Ohio’s
casinos as unclaimed winnings have already added up to a little more than $800,000, with the
potential for an even bigger haul after the openings of five more racinos.

Although a portion of the money from those unclaimed credit vouchers goes to the state to
fund education programs, much of it could end up sitting in the Ohio Department of Commerce’s
unclaimed funds program in perpetuity, waiting for the rightful owners to show up with a
ticket.

“There are a lot of regulations in the gaming industry, and this one could have been overlooked.
They may have to rethink this,” said Steve Gallaway, principal of Gaming Market Advisors, a
Denver-based gambling-industry research firm. In other states, unclaimed credit vouchers have added
up to millions annually and are often divided among the casinos and state coffers.

Here’s how it works in Ohio:

Slot players who don’t go bust receive a credit voucher — or ticket — from their machine when
they are finished playing.

The unclaimed credit vouchers are the ones those players never put into another slot or redeem
at the cash window.

“It’s someone leaving 2 cents here and someone else leaving 5 or 10 cents there, and they don’t
want to bother with cashing them in,” said Troy Buswell, vice president and general manger of
gambling operations at Scioto Downs.

It happens, for example, when someone playing the 50-cent machine is down to 25 cents and doesn’t
want to add more money into the machine, he said. Even if players take a ticket for the quarter,
they might never cash it.Slot-machine players at Scioto Downs have already “donated” $43,806 from
their unclaimed credit vouchers to the Ohio Lottery Commission, which uses the money to fund
education, said spokeswoman Danielle Frizzi-Babb.

The total is higher at the state’s four Las Vegas-style casinos, which are regulated by the Ohio
Casino Control Commission. At Hollywood Columbus, it’s $308,434, while it’s $230,561 at Hollywood
Toledo; $94,993 at Horseshoe Cincinnati; and $137,123 at Horseshoe Cleveland.

The racinos are required to pay the value of the unclaimed vouchers to the Lottery Commission
after 180 days. December was the first month in which Scioto Downs made a payment, worth $9,679.
The average monthly payment has been $6,258.

There’s a different process at the four casinos, which have slots and table games.

After 180 days, the Horseshoe Cleveland and Cincinnati casinos send unclaimed winnings to the
state, while Hollywood Columbus and Toledo will do so after five years.

“It depends on their internal controls as to when they turn it over,” said Tama Davis,
spokeswoman for the Casino Commission.Also, if jackpot winners at the slots or table games do not
have proper identification, they are not awarded their bounty until they can return with the proper
ID, Davis said. Those funds also could wind up as unclaimed winnings.

The unclaimed winnings from the four casinos go to the Department of Commerce’s unclaimed funds
program.

“The money in unclaimed funds remains there; we’re always trying to reunite the owners with
their money,” said Matt Mullins, spokesman for the department.

If someone wanted to claim his or her winnings, no matter how small, the person would have to
present the unclaimed credit voucher to the Department of Commerce, Mullins said.

“This is new, so as we go forward, we will refine the process to make it easier for people to
reclaim these funds,” he said.The procedure in place for casinos is the same way unclaimed funds
are handled for other businesses in Ohio.“It’s not the state’s money. It belongs to Ohioans,” said
Matthew Schuler, executive director of the Casino Commission.

“It’s no different than if a college student forgot about a bank account.”

Changing the way unclaimed winnings from the casinos are distributed is a matter for the
legislature.

“If the General Assembly chooses to repurpose the funds, then the commission would put those
controls in place,” Schuler said. “As a regulator we can’t make a policy call, we only implement
the decisions of the General Assembly.”

Other states receive a portion of the revenue from casinos’ unclaimed credit vouchers.

In Nevada, gamblers walked away from about $9.6 million in the most recent fiscal year.

“The state of Nevada gets 75 percent of this and the casino gets the other 25 percent as taxable
income,” said Michael Lawton, senior research analyst of the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

The total is about $2.4 million annually in New Jersey. Of that total, 25 percent goes to the
state and the remaining 75 percent goes to the casinos and “is reported as other income on each
licensee’s quarterly income statement,” said Lisa Spengler, spokeswoman for New Jersey’s Division
of Gaming Enforcement.“More than anything,” said Gallaway, of the Denver research firm, “it’s a
headache for the casinos and they want to get the money off their books.”